Abdulsalaam Olamide
As a company, Green Nation, seeks to educate and enable Nigerians maximize the gains in the agriculture sector. Towards that end, the company organizes a weekly seminar in Ikeja, Lagos. The initiative, which began in April, 2017 continues to gather momentum as more people join to learn modern trends in agriculture. To benefit, prospective members are required to pay N165, 000 or N24, 000, depending on their choice as these have specific benefits. Members who introduce people to the scheme get some percentage from the subscription fee.
According to Steve Toluwalase, Chief Executive Officer of Green Nation, the company was set up to empower people with the finance to start business, train and awaken their consciousness to prosperity. He enjoined Nigerians to grab the opportunity offered by the scheme and earn a livelihood.
Some already established members of Green Nation such as Ademola Mujeeb described the initiative as rewarding while affirming that he has recorded some good returns. He enjoined Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunity.
Some other speakers spoke on the need for Nigeria to be agriculturally self-reliant and not allow itself be taken advantage of by foreign countries. The country can achieve success, they say, by focusing on the downstream sector of agriculture.
According to Temi, one of the speakers, agriculture can be divided into the main/upstream sector-which is a process of growing and planting, the mid stream- focusing on the transportation of the harvested materials and the downstream-where the end produce is gotten.
From the speakers addresses came various points: African countries have largely neglected the potential in the downstream sector of the industry, preferring rather to grow the raw materials and export them; then, buy back the finished produce at more than twice the amount the raw material was exported.
It was pointed out also that Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, yet imports about 95% of industrial starch used in the country. The country is also the 5th largest exporter of Sesame seed, yet cannot boast a major sesame seed oil producing company. On the other hand, Africa produces 68% of the world’s cocoa, yet about 70% of chocolate consumed in this part of the world is imported from Europe.
The speakers spoke on the need for Nigeria to be agriculturally self reliant, with strong industrial base, rather than allow itself to be taken advantage of by foreign countries.
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